Original Broadway Cast Recording - The Last Ship

I've never seen this - and may never do if it doesn't come near my province or come out on DVD - but I watched the 'making of' documentary and thought I'd give it a try based on that. And I am so completely and totally in love with this music that it's almost ridiculous. Sting has created a moving, rousing, beautiful show, where I feel like I am right there in the shipyard and the small town in Northern England with the workers struggling to keep the shipyard and their way of life alive.Do not waste another minute - buy this! Buy three, buy ten! Give them to strangers on the street. You won't regret it. Unless one of the strangers is really strange and it all goes sideways, but hey - I never FORCED you to do that, did I?

Stingの自伝的内容ミュージカルのオリジナルキャストによるサウンドトラックです。2013年に出たStingの同名アルバムには収録されてなかった『Island Of Souls』、『All This Time』、『When We Dance』なども収録されており、ミュージカルでは使用されてるのでしょう。いずれもStingのソロナンバーですが、中でも『Island Of Souls』は亡くなった父親をテーマにした曲なので『The Last Ship』との関係も深いかと思います。Stingのヴォーカルはボーナストラックとして最後に収められた1曲だけですが、彼の集大成的内容のこの作品を長年のStingファンなら彼のソロキャリアを俯瞰しつつ十分楽しめると思います。N.Y.のパブリック・シアターで行われたライブ映像作品は、故郷ニューカッスルやStingの若かりし頃のエピソードをふんだんに交えたMCが聞き物で、『The Last Ship』という作品を味わう為の重要なテキストとも言える内容で必見です。ミュージカルを観ずとも曲のバックグランドを知った上でこの作品を味わうと胸掻きむしられます。閉塞感漂う街での父親との葛藤、そして自身は成功を収めたものの長いスランプに陥った末に、一度は逃げ出した故郷に舞い戻ることで再び創作意欲を取り戻すStingの姿に胸が震えます。いつかは日本でもミュージカルを観られるでしょうか・・・。

Great album. Jimmy Nail is brilliant on it.

Not too successful on the Broadway stage - apparently the idea wasn't strong enough. There were some good performances and the music itself is superb, easy to listen to, and it carries the story along extremely well. The cast good and there is an additional, alternative version, of one of the tracks by Sting himself. Additional features is a booklet with cast and crew information and the lyrics to the tracks. One minor gripe, which doesn't detract from the CD generally, is that I would have liked a synopsis of the show.

Hearing these songs in context to the story of the show, rather than just sung by Sting was very interesting.But the stand out performance is by Jimmy Nail.